Some of the best known figures from the industry gathered on Tuesday to celebrate the work of Pennies, the electronic charity box, in its first two years of fundraising. Ian Cheshire, chairman of the British Retail Consortium and chief executive of Kingfisher, joined Peter Ayliffe, president and chief executive of Visa Europe, and Gary Grant, managing director and founder of The Entertainer, in congratulating Pennies in achieving over 100 per cent growth in its second year, during a time when charitable giving as a whole in the UK fell by 20 per cent.

Posted by Ava Szajna

Read more…

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) on Tuesday reported UK retail sales values fell 0.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis from October 2011 according to the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor, the worst results for growth in 11 months excluding Easter. “Unfortunately it looks like the modest sales revival we saw in September was something of a false dawn.” Stephen Robertson, director general at the BRC said:
“Excluding April, hit by this year’s earlier Easter, October saw the worst sales growth since last November.

Posted by Ava Szajna

Read more…

The British Retail Consortium this week warned that food price inflation is set to rise again, as poor US harvests and the wettest British summer in 100 years will only serve to exacerbate the problem. The latest Shop Price Index from the BRC showed overall annual change in shop price in August picked up slightly to 1.1 per cent from 1.0 per cent in July.

Read more…

Overall shop price inflation rose just 1.1 per cent in June, after a 1.5 per cent rise in May, bringing in the lowest level increase in two and a half years. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said a fall in the cost of crude oil three months ago and raw materials had finally filtered down to shop prices for June.

Read more…

“We need government to stand up and actually do something positive” head of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Rob Templeman told delegates at the Retail Symposium 2012 on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters. In something of a call to arms for the retail industry, Templeman criticised the government for failing to do enough to improve the state of the high streets, adding that the Portas Pilot towns “lacked bold vision”.

Read more…

A new set of guidelines from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and shop worker’s union USDAW has been released, as it emerges more than 35,000 shop works suffered physical or verbal abuse or threats over the past year. ‘Tackling Violence Against Staff’ is now available to all retailers looking to protect their staff, offering guidelines on the legislation covering shop works, developing a safety policy, training and reporting of crime.

Read more…

Ocado, the UK’s only pure-online grocery retailer has become the latest member of the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Having delivered its first order in 2002, Ocado delivered an average of 110,000 orders a week from 2010 to 2011, with annual sales topping £640 million. In light of the new addition to the ranks, Stephen Robertson, British Retail Consortium director general said: "As the UK's only online-only grocery retailer, Ocado represents an important and distinctive part of the sector.

Read more…

Focus to remain on promotions as inflation tightens consumer budget even further. Figures released on Wednesday from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Nielsen found overall shop price inflation rose 1.5 per cent in March from 1.2 per cent in February. Food inflation increased 5.4 per cent in March from 4.2 per cent in February, whilst non-food prices saw its fastest fall in over two years, down 0.9 per cent in March from 0.7 per cent in February.

Read more…

Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), has announced he will leave the organisation by the end of the year. Robertson joined the BRC as director in 2008, after 14 years spent on the board of various high street retailers. British Retail Consortium Chairman, Rob Templeman, said: "Stephen has made a sterling contribution to the BRC and has moved the organisation forwards both in its policy achievements and in its financial stability.

Read more…

In the three months to end of January British retail managed to break its recent declining trend and report a 1.8 per cent rise in footfall compared to the year before. The latest figures from the British Retail Consortium show a marked improvement on the 2.3 per cent year-on-year decline experienced in the last three months, although the figures were boosted by a strong year-on-year rise in December, as mild weather encouraged consumers to hit the shops.

Read more…